Loren Brichter's influence on mobile app design

Loren Brichter got his start working on the original iPhone at Apple, then created and ultimately sold Tweetie to Twitter, and is now responsible for the phenomenal word game, Letterpress. Jessica E. Lessin has profiled Brichter, and elaborated on his influence on mobile interface design in the Wall Street Journal:

When Dominique Leca wanted feedback on his Sparrow mail mobile app in 2010, he sought out Mr. Brichter. Mr. Brichter responded to Mr. Leca with copious notes about the Sparrow app, including suggesting an adjustment to Sparrow's text placement and advising Mr. Leca to "delay the fade-out animation by a second or so." Mr. Leca says he followed much of the advice and asked Mr. Brichter to be an adviser; Sparrow later received much acclaim and was acquired by Google Inc. last year.

Pull-to-refresh, sliding panel layers, and swipe-to-reveal are just a few of the things the WSJ reports have been picked up by everyone from Apple to BlackBerry to Facebook to Google. I think they even try to stick him with hamburger buttons and basements, the now ubiquitous 3-line icons that reveal a sidebar filled with menu items. Busted, Brichter!

The full article is a great read, but might be blocked by a paywall. This Google search link might get you in.

We've been honored to have Brichter talk about his background and work on both Iterate and Debug:

This was interesting. I thought this was a new api that was created by one company and copied by others. The sliding panels where you slide from side to side to bring forth a new panel with menu options...I had no idea it was first designed by Brichter. Well done. The usability and user-friendliness is amazing.

No doubt Loren is a genius and knows what he is talking about when it comes to app content and design. When every other major company picks up on his content to include in their own you have to give the guy props. I also just read the full article in the WSJ and it is really good really giving you what Loren is all about.